Practice writing interesting newspaper headlines with this interactive game. Select one of the six news stories to view the headline, then choose comments to see multiple choice options for the mistake located in the headline.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Although very simple, this interactive provides an excellent starting point for discussing how to write a catchy headline. Share on your interactive whiteboard or projector and discuss options together. Have students create their own incorrect headlines for other students to edit and correct.

Google Scholar is a web search tool for scholarly literature and academic resources such as books, articles, and documents. Enter your search term, then choose to search by articles (with or without patents and case-law). Use additional tools within search results to narrow down by date. Enable the My Library function to save selected results for later use. The Cite link beneath the entry description includes formatted citations in many different options.

In the Classroom

Use this great resource to organize and compare research found on the Internet. Consider creating a class Google account to collect materials found throughout the school year. Be sure to talk to students about how to organize and share information and sources. Students can maintain their own archive and show their collection at the end of the year. This tool will also be very handy for graduate projects teachers may be doing.

Hypothesis is an easy to use tool for annotating, collaborating, and sharing web content. Add any URL to the search bar on the home page to begin using Hypothesis after creating your account. Create an annotation by highlighting text; the pop-up allows you to add notes including hyperlinks and tags to your annotation. Add notes or highlights using tools on the site. Save your notes for public viewing or just for your use. Invite others to view your notes or collaborate using the sharing link with your personal URL or with social media links. Click the Education tab on the top menu to see examples of classroom use, 10 Ways to Annotate With Students, Creating a Private Group, and more.

In the Classroom

Use Hypothesis as part of your flipped classroom. Annotate and share web resources with students and ask them to contribute notes and additional information. Ask ESL/ELL and resource students to write text to explain concepts by rewording, or to ask questions about the parts they do not understand. Add questions to math explanations, highlight landforms, or discuss information on maps. Share with students for use when collaborating on research projects. Install the Hypothesis bookmark on classroom computers for use at any time.

NoPlag is a plagiarism checker that compares your writing to online sources to detect possible cases of plagiarism. Complete five checks for plagiarism a day with up to 500 words without an account. With a free account complete twenty checks per day with 500 words. You will get a report after pasting samples of work into an interactive box that highlights probable plagiarism along with links to the possible websites. The Noplag Blog has helpful articles on the importance of intellectual property rights and additional teaching ideas. There are premium features available, but this review is only for the free account. Educators and students at public and church schools and colleges can request an account through a contact form. At the time of this review NoPlag wasn't working on Chrome.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Teach students about plagiarism and how to avoid it; it is a critical skill in all the content areas. Noplag is an easy place to introduce the concepts and have students check their writing without registering. Demonstrate how to use the tool to the whole class using a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students register for additional options. Emphasize to students that they have the ability and the obligation to check their work for honesty.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from October 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Transform your classroom activities by learning how to use Animoto. Engage students and deepen content area knowledge by instructional videos. Text, audio, and video bring additional context to content area instruction for your students. Use student created videos as formative assessment. Brainstorm with others how you and your students can use Animoto in your classroom. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: (1) Learn the basic use of Animoto; (2) Explore three different ways to use Animoto in the classroom; and (3) Plan for the use of Animoto in the classroom. This session is for teachers at ALL technology comfort levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional development session from October 2016, opens in Adobe Connect. Google Chrome is the "Magician's Hat" of content built-in the browser. Google Chrome was named because the developer liked fast, and shiny cars. However, the design philosophy was content and not chrome. Chrome has features that are designed for efficiency and ease of use. Chrome is the luxury browser of the web, and it's dashboard rivals that of a luxury car. Explore the Chrome Web Store to learn features and extensions to support and enrich your student's online experience. As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: (1) Learn how to locate accessibility features and extensions; (2) Learn how to integrate extensions to best meet your students' needs; (3) Learn extensions and features to support your Google Chrome experience; and (4) Collect extensions to use in your classroom. This session is for teachers at ALL technology comfort levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

Use this search engine for graphic resources from around the web. Search for graphics in many file formats such as vector, icons, and photos for use with your websites, presentations, and any other graphic needs. In addition to graphics, Freepik offers templates for flyers, posters, and brochures. Many resources offer options for customizing text and color. Each item includes details for editing and downloading, including information on crediting the author. Note: As with most clipart search engines, there are graphics on this site that are not appropriate for children. TeachersFirst suggests that an adult looks for appropriate graphics to distribute to students.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

These graphics and templates are free to download and use (with appropriate credit). This site is great if you need some clever clipart to jazz up student handouts, classroom bulletin boards, or PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. Special Ed, speech/language, or ESL/ELL teachers may find these images helpful when working with non-readers or non-verbal students. There is also web clipart that you can use for your blog, class webpage, or wiki.

FreshGrade is more than a classroom management system; it also creates eportfolios for all students. Easily capture, provide feedback, and share student work with this tool. Use FreshGrade to post lessons, assignments, and due dates. Keep track of grades and allow students to contribute video, audio, images, and comments to their eportfolios. Easily share with parents who can also comment. Create an account using your email and start setting up your classes. Click the drop-down arrow next to your name for support. The support is extensive: find a Quick Start Guide, Walkthrough Video, comprehensive Product Guide, FAQ's, Knowledge Base, and a Video Library. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use FreshGrade to manage and organize any classroom. Maintain a classroom calendar so students can easily find due dates and deadlines for homework and projects. Share information with parents to keep them up to date. Even if your school or district already has a learning management system for tracking grades, use FreshGrade for the student portfolios and easy parent inclusion. Record classroom activities and student learning with photos or videos using your mobile device. Show students how to document their learning and make comments in their portfolio. Share portfolios with parents, not just at conference time, but any time the student portfolio is updated to keep parents in the loop. Share student accounts with other teachers they may have.

Airtable is an online database for collaboration incorporating many different online platforms. Attach files from services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote to share. Collaborators can view the change history, link data, and engage in chat. Free templates offer options for creating study guides, book lists, and more. Free accounts offer unlimited databases with storage of up to 1200 records each and a 2GB attachment limit.

In the Classroom

Use Airtable to collaborate on lessons with other teachers, both local and across the world. Share with students to use when collaborating on projects or to create study guides. Use the provided templates to catalog your books or share study guides with students.

Create and share custom online event invitations using Splash. Choose from the many templates to design and add information, RSVP questions, confirmations, and event settings. Splash even automatically creates a custom hashtag for use with your event. Be sure to follow the tutorials to get a good overview of Splash's capabilities.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

The possibilities for using Splash seem endless. Use this for planning parties, bringing in materials for projects, and any other activity that requires coordination. If you have limited technology availability, this is a great way for teachers or students to sign up for time slots to use laptops, iPads, cameras, or a podcast recording station. Go paperless with signups! Organize your parent/teacher conferences. Plan student research of class projects using this resource. Help students build organizational skills by having them "plan" a mythical (or actual) event such as a museum opening for their Famous Americans exhibit. Use this tool for any middle or high school club, career day, or sports team to organize their own events. Share with your school's parent organization to help them plan the next school event.

Prism is a tool for "crowdsourcing interpretation" of text. Create your own Prism or browse through Prisms available on the site. To create a Prism, add text and choose options for highlighting such as red for demonstrating foreshadowing or blue for feminism. Before finishing, add the title and author and include credit for the work using their drop-down tool providing options. Watch the introductory video, which resides on YouTube, for a full overview of how to create and use Prism. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as ClipGrab, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use Prism to explore text collaboratively with your students. Paste in portions of any text and have students highlight indicated features or ask them to highlight areas of confusion. Students will need a Prism account; however, their work is anonymous when added to Prisms. Use the completed Prisms to assess student understanding and as a springboard for classroom discussions. Use across the curriculum to highlight and interpret texts in all subjects. Create Prisms for newspaper articles from different sources, have students highlight factual information, then compare and contrast information found using an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail subaccounts, explained here; this tells how to set up Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. Using Gmail subaccounts will provide anonymous interaction within your class.

Primary vs. Secondary Sources is an excellent YouTube video explaining the difference between these two types of sources. The video provides several examples of each type of source and tells why it fits into that category. If your district blocks YouTube, then this video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as ClipGrab, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Share this video with students as they begin any research project. Be sure to add a link to this site on your class website for reference at home. Have students create a simple infographic with examples of both types of resources using Easel.ly, reviewed here. Have students upload a photo they have taken of a source and add voice bubbles to explain why it fits into a particular category using a tool such as Superlame, reviewed here.

Carrd is a simple to use, one-page website creator. Think of it as similar to an online business card. Begin by choosing from available templates or start with a blank page. A quick page of instructions provides an overview of tools available to use, including adding images, links to social media accounts, tables, and more. When complete, save and publish to your unique carrd.co URL. Please check out the templates and published wording used. It may be inappropriate for your students.

In the Classroom

Use this site for students to post simple projects such as stories, poems, and art projects. For easy access, collect a master list of links to student pages on your classroom website, wiki, blog, or create an interactive Google doc or form for collecting these. If students are creating pages, be sure to check with your district's policy on publishing student work. Each website created has a private URL. Students can use this tool at home for presentations and email you the URL for their completed work. Compile the presentation URLs on your class blog or wiki, or a Google doc so all students have access. Integrate all subjects into Carrd. The simplicity of this site would make it an easy tool for younger students to create eportfolios with links to and explanations of their various projects located elsewhere on the web.

Create a poster (meme), postcard, or add captions to a photo. Also, resize and crop images. Save in medium or best quality to your device or download as a PDF or Word doc easily with Picfont. No registration is required. Choose images from your computer or device or select a picture from the gallery. Change not just the color and size of the font, but add an outline in any color and size, place it anywhere on the photo, and many more effects. Use Picfont to spice up social media postings; select to create a Facebook header, and a post with photos, a Twitter header and an In-stream, an Instagram Post, a LinkedIn cover, or select from several ad sizes. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click features for directions about how to use the different features of Picfont.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this easy tool to add captions to images, create memes, or posters for your bulletin boards. Use this easy tool with students during back to school time as a way for them to get to know each other. Have students upload a picture of themselves doing their favorite activity and label it with amusing text or a favorite quote (or song lyrics?). Have them upload images that represent their interests and character traits. Print the images with text for a back-to-school bulletin board. Use after a field trip for students to write captions on the photos they took. Be sure to share the photos on your class web page, blog, or wiki. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics. For other uses, have students practice new words in a world language class by labeling and identifying images in that language. Create writing prompts using several annotated images. Have students create annotated images to explain key terms in science class. In ELA class, make homophone or vocabulary images to show the correct word along with a picture that explains it.

ScreenShot is free online image editing service. Upload an image from your computer, then use the tools and filters to adjust the photograph as desired. ScreenShot contains basic photo imaging tools for at-home users, as well as more advanced tools for more seasoned photo editors. Choose from many different effects to make your images unique. When finished editing, view the image at the URL provided, download, or share using social networking links.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool anytime you need to edit photos for use on class blogs, wikis, or in presentation tools. In primary grades, this tool can be useful for teachers to use to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with younger students using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Edit together! Encourage older students to use this site themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use this tool in photography or art classes. Use the editor to edit pictures to fit styles of pictures when doing historical reports or to set a mood. Use text options for the photos themselves to tell the stories. Have students annotate or label Creative Commons online images of cells, structures of an animal, and much more.

Ribbet is an online photo editing and sharing site that doesn't require sign-up, download, or installation. Follow prompts to upload images, then use Ribbet's editing tools to crop, resize, and fine tune the photo. Liven-up images with stickers, filters, or create collages and more with Ribbet's additional photo tools. When finished, download the picture to your computer or share to Facebook and photo storage sites using the links provided. Free registration allows users to save images and editing history to Ribbet.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use Ribbet anytime photos need to be edited on class blogs, wikis, or sites. Encourage older students to use this tool themselves on images for projects or presentations. Use Ribbet to edit pictures to look "old" when doing historical reports or to set a mood. In primary grades, use this tool to edit pictures from a field trip, science experiments, and more. Share the editing process with younger students using an interactive whiteboard or projector, and edit the project together!

Though this blog has current articles, this particular 2015 article offers suggestions for the first of five activities for creating community in the middle school classroom at the start of ANY school year. Each activity offers students the opportunity to participate in a risk-free situation while getting to know each other and the teacher. Find the remaining four activities in the site archive on the left menu, In Case You Missed It, under July 2015.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Be sure to check out the entire Did I Miss Anything Yesterday? blog for additional activities and ideas for teaching middle school students. Take advantage of the exercises in this article to use at the beginning of the school year or new semesters. After finishing an activity, have students or groups share information learned from fellow students using Padlet, reviewed here. The Padlet application creates free online bulletin boards.

UBC (University of British Columbia) Commons offers several guides for learning and sharing with digital tools. Begin by choosing any guide of interest with topics including how to avoid plagiarism and a guide to properly citating online resources. Each guide provides an excellent description of the topic along with related resources and links. Some include videos and a FAQ section. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as ClipGrab, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard as you share individual topics with students, then create a link on your class website for students to access information at any time. Divide topics among groups of students and have each group create a simple infographic sharing their findings using Easel.ly, reviewed here, or Venngage reviewed here. Create a class wiki with resources for using and crediting online tools. Not comfortable with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.

Plotbot is a social screenwriting tool. While single writers can use the site, Plotbot strives to encourage collaborative writing and feedback. It includes many social media features designed to offer opportunities to share, comment on, create, and edit elements in the screenplay process. Registration requires an email address, password and a username of one's choosing. Get started in your Sandbox, which is a private mini-screenplay where you can learn how Plotbot works and walk through creating the major elements of the screenplay: the slugline, action, and dialogue. As the project creator, you control what up to fifty collaborators can do on your screenplay in the settings page. If you do have collaborators, the forum is a good place to work out ideas or ask for help. Plotbot projects are publicly viewable by default and searchable unless you select privacy in the settings. A handy feature lets scenes be re-ordered by dropping and dragging. Each account can have two private projects and unlimited public ones. Screenplays can be saved, imported, and downloaded for backup. Be aware that because of the public nature of the site, students may find mature content. It is always best to preview!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Because of its ease of use, this is a helpful tool for classroom collaboration and learning the basics of screenwriting. The text editor is very basic so discuss with students what elements go into a screenplay. Be aware that because of the public nature of the site, students may find mature content. Students also may collaborate with anyone with a Plotbot account. Have students work together to create a scene or play that can be acted out or reviewed or edited by other students. Navigation can be confusing, especially returning to saved work. A menu on the right-hand side provides actions to choose. A chronological record of activity in each account helps in finding different projects and scenes. Be sure to show students the account and screenplay settings to set preferred privacy and social aspects.

Write down your thoughts in an organized, structured way with Thought Plan. The simplicity of the features allows for easy use with flexible editing for personalized use. Register for an account to begin creating your first Thought Plan. Add a title, then begin creating a list of your main ideas. Share or download to your computer with the provided links. The introductory video resides on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as ClipGrab, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Use Thought Plan to plan and organize your yearly schedule. All students will appreciate having an online time management account, but learning support students and disorganized gifted students need one. This is also a great tool for ESL/ELL students to help learn organization skills with very simple features. You may want to model using this online tool to help middle and high school students learn personal organization. Share this site the first week of school to get students started on the right foot! Make a demo account for a mythical student and organize his/her daily schedule together so students can see how it works. Share the steps on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Alternately, this idea will work with group projects where students need to learn to manage their project time.